Daily Devotional
Word of the Day
Motive is Everything
Pastor Scott
Wednesday, May 05, 2004
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"But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed."
(James 1:25)
When we talk about the flesh, we're not talking about just the socially unacceptable sins--drunkenness, fornication, lasciviousness. We're talking about independence, separation from God, the self-life, living for self. Coming out of Romans 7, Paul gives us the good news. In chapter 7 the man in turmoil says, "Dear God, the things that I want to do, I can't do; and the things that I don't want to do, I find myself doing. Who is going to deliver me from the body of this death! I thank God, through Jesus Christ." I thank God through Jesus Christ there is deliverance, for there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit (Rom. 8:1).
"No condemnation" doesn't mean we're not convicted of our sin. It doesn't mean that our conscience doesn't prick us and say, "You're going the wrong way." When you know to do good and you do it not, to you it is sin. There's a law of spiritual living in Christ Jesus that has made us free from the law of sin. There's a new law that we can embrace. That law of living in Jesus allows us to habitually yield our members as instruments to God. Whereas we were the slaves of sin and could not help ourselves, this new law allows us to mortify this flesh with all of its deeds. The flesh is not dominant and will no longer control us.
What is your mind set on? What are you intent upon? What are you using your time and energies for? The carnal man minds the things of the flesh; that's what he thinks about and delights in. He prepares to be successful in that realm, in that world, learning all of their techniques. He learns how to intimidate and how to manipulate. He learns how to live in what the world so delights itself in--image. Substance isn't necessary; it's image. We're inundated with that. The kingdom that we live in is the exact opposite--image is nothing; substance is everything.
We must come to grips with who we are. Many of us have not gotten quiet before God, gone to the mirror of His Word, and said, "Show me who I am." We don't look in the mirror. There's the mirror and there's a poster, a poster that your public relations man, Satan, made up. And you think that's who you are. They are two different images. You need to look in the Word of God and really search your own heart. Why do we do what we do? Motive is everything in the kingdom.